Hawaii No. 30 in RPI, back in poll; Greeley, Taylor earn BWC honors
Hawaii stays at No. 30 in the RPI for the fifth straight week. The Beach at 25. CSUN from 37 to 40
From the Big West
Taylor was also nominated for Player of Week, which went to The Beach’s Okpala.
Posting a pair of double-doubles in road wins over UC Santa Barbara and Hawai‘i, Kalei Greeley earned Big West Women’s Volleyball Freshman of the Week accolades.
Greeley recorded her third and fourth double-doubles of the season, hitting .347 (30-5-72) for the weekend. She hit .432 with 19 kills in a five-set win against the Gauchos and scooped up 13 balls to go along with a pair of block assists.
In a four-set triumph versus the Mustangs, Greeley contributed 11 kills, 10 digs and two more block assists as UH won for the seventh time in its last eight contests.
Hawaii sophomore Nikki Taylor took home Big West Women’s Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week honors, achieved in large part to posting the program’s first triple-double in the rally scoring era.
The 6-3 outside hitter posted 10 kills, 10 digs and a career-high 11 blocks in the Rainbow Wahine’s four-set victory at Cal Poly. On the previous night, she pounded 16 kills to go along with a career-high 21 digs to help UH outlast UC Santa Barbara in five sets.
http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/poll-11-24-14di/
After a six-week absence, the Hawaii volleyball team has returned to the AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25.
The Rainbow Wahine (19-6, 11-3) are at No. 25, receiving 76 points. Last week, Hawaii received 44 points, putting the Wahine at 28th.
Hawaii last was ranked in the Oct. 6 poll at No. 21. Two road losses at Cal State Northridge and current No. 16 Long Beach State dropped the Wahine out of the rankings for the first time since the final four weeks of the 1992 season, the only other year Hawaii was not in the poll.
The Wahine have won three of their last four, including road wins at UC Santa Barbara last Friday and Cal Poly last Saturday. Hawaii, currently second in the Big West, finishes out the regular season with Big West matches against UC Riverside Friday and UC Davis Saturday, both at 8 p.m. following Wahine basketball games.
Stanford (28-0) remained the unanimous No. 1, receiving all 60 votes votes. There was no change in Nos. 2 through 9 with former No. 11 Nebraska (20-7) trading places with former No. 10 Illinois (22-7).
Of the teams that have defeated Hawaii this season, only CSUN is not in the poll. Oregon (21-7) moved up a spot to No. 13, UCLA (19-10) remained at No. 17 and Arizona State (18-12) stayed at No. 22.
alright hawai’i back in top 25. yay. now wonder the rpi is going to post.
its about time that worth less team of usc got dropped down. they lost to numerous ‘weaklings’ and slowpokes to finally get them out.
1. not sure what you have against SC. Calling them worthless is a bit harsh. Surprised it took so long for them to be unranked but that’s what happens when you start so high in the poll
Was watching Redondo Union play Mater Dei this weekend, and I am looking forward to seeing Norene Iosia play. Much more offensive minded setter than UH’s current setters, but that might change when she gets to UH. Wish Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani was going to UH, it looks like she can hit hard.
yay! glad Taylor & Greeley recd the accolades… well deserved and congrats!
3. Iosia is a verbal. A little early to get excited.
If everyone that people keep saying they ‘wished’ UH would sign did, UH would have dozens and dozens of players. They seriously recruit who they seriously want and are a good fit for the program. And sometimes limited by scholarship numbers.
it goes beyond a player hitting hard.
Think the RPI is interesting in that Hawaii is at 30 for the fifth straight week.
It is going to be interesting for the selection committee. Curious if they’ll look at all the weather-related problems and flight cancellations and decide to go more regional this year.
And wonder if UW beats Stanford this week if it affect anything since UW does have two losses.
People have ventured some guesses as to where UH ends up going. Some of the Wahine said they’d like to go to UW since Magill and Huff are from the area.
Others are hoping for UCLA. Think they might be the only southern California team that hosts. Don’t see it going to USC, which dropped to 23 in the RPI, and Long Beach State at 25 likely won’t host, plus they usually wouldn’t put 2 conference teams in a sub regional
As for the other RPI of interest, Oregon at 8, UCLA 17, CSUN 40, ASU 41, Ohio 44,
With all the talk about Iosia, wanted to comment about Taylor Higgins. Got to see her up close at UCSB match so that I can see her body language. In spite of rough patches in the game, you can tell that this girl is a competitor. Yes, her set locations and setting decisions may not yet be the greatest – but you can tell that this girl has fight and pride. In spite of some recent less than nice remarks made about her setting, IMHO, she is going to be okay and will be among the long line of very good setters at UH. Come on Robin, get Taylor up to speed! Just kidding- but can’t you forgive that she went to Punahou instead of McKinley?
The at-large bid is the Selection Committee’s “save” card. They do not want to use this card on a “one and done” (i.e. Round 1 loser) team.
As mentioned before, last year there were 32 at-large bids available. 28 went to the BCS, of which a ridiculous 8 went to SEC squads. Of that 8 — including Seed 4 Missouri and Seed 5 Florida — not one made it out of their subregional.
Of last year’s 4 non-BCS at-large bids, 2 went to the Big West. All 3 Big West teams failed to make it out of their subregional. Ditto both Big East squads. The WCC had the last remaining at-large bid. Both WCCers (AQ and at-large) made it to the Regionals.
The NCAA Selection Committee remembers. Expect the WCC to be rewarded for last year’s tournament performance.
Will the Big West receive 3 again this year? CSUN needs to run the table for a 20-win season and catch a break from the Pac-12 — which is expecting a record-tieing 9 (including the AQ) — if the Matadors are to have any chance of joining the Big Dance. Chance looks slim to none, but that’s better than no chance.
Here are the two Clash-of-the-Titans matches remaining before Selection Sunday:
Nov. 26 (Wed): Stanford @ Washington. Stanford’s perfect season is on the line, and even if the Cardinal falls to the Dawgs, Stanford will be Seed 1 in the NCAA Championship tournament. If the Huskies win, Washington with 2 losses could still be Seed 4 or Seed 5 (IMHO),
Nov 29 (Sat): Florida of the SEC @ Texas of the Big 12. Both teams are in the mix for being named one of the 4 top seeds, along with Wisconsin/Penn State from the Big Ten and North Carolina/Florida State from the ACC.
Go Bows!
I’d like the wahine to maybe be sent to over rated teams like Iowa State and North Carolina for a better chance to go back to the sweet sixteen.
However for better weather UCLA would be a good choice and I think the wahine can beat them in a rematch.
7. Higgins has a great attitude and personality. I have seen improvements in her serving and defense from the beginning of the season to now but not much in her setting location and decision making, sad to say. Hope she’s better next season.
I hope they don’t get sent to Stanford or Washington. I think any other place they would have a chance to get to the sweet 16.
I think we play a WCC team in the first round like LMU, Santa Clara or San Diego.
2. i dont have anything against sc. note i called them ‘worth less’ not ‘worthless’ meaning they are less worthy this time especially to be ranked or any higher up in rpi for what their performance is worth. they lost to ‘weaklings’ in comparison to them ie cal and slowpokes such as oregon and they are 14-14 overall, 7-11 conference as well as a 4 way losing streak both at home and away; all of these are incredibly disappointing.
2. believe you mean Oregon State 18-10, 8-11 and not Oregon 21-7, 11-7
8. going to be interesting. If the ncaa committee stays more regional and the top RPIs hold (kind of), my thought is Stanford is the overall 1, Texas 2, FSU 3 and Wisconsin 4. (depending on what happens with the Stanford UW match). UW could be a No. 4 seed
committee will want to protect UW as the regional host, meaning Stanford gets sent out into another region. could mean Stanford (going to Minnesota) Texas in the Iowa State region, FSU to Louisville and UW stays home.
IF Wisconsin is a top-4 seed, they replace UW in Minnesota region.
it should be very interesting
8. if the committee uses the RPI correctly then, from the WCC, BYU at 20 gets in as the automatic. LMU at 39 might get an at-large. Regardless if they ‘remember last year’ or not, the WCC is still a mid-major and, as you say, there is ridiculousness when it comes to the Power-5 conferences getting obscene numbers . Have argued for years that they need to quit applying football values to volleyball.
Interesting looks like Misty Ma’a is leaving Miami and playing beaach volleyball. I could see her at one of the LA schools to do the modeling thing as well and close to brother.But would be great if she transferred to UH and paired up with Katie Spieler.
Ma’a has played in 16 sets, 9 matches 1 start. No longer on the roster.
Maybe she transfers to play sand (don’t believe Miami has a sand team yet, could be wrong), maybe stays in Miami to be closer to her modeling agent.
don’t think Hawaii is on her radar.
8. odd thing is when I went to the NCAA.com it said 31 auto, 33 at-large. And when I went through the RPI, could only find 31 conferences (one independent)
5. The only thing the coaches cannot see is the intangibles of the player you recruit. Sometimes not all you see is what you get. You cannot recruit an athlete based on the “passion of playing volleyball”. What is the motive of an athlete? Sometimes we may see that an athlete is a “Tweener” so they don’t go after that athlete. Unless you have top notch facilities, it will be hard to recruit the best. We have the best crowds and best food venues, but it ends there. Hawaii will always
be trying to do the best with what they are able to get their hands on…I am sure there is a lot of walk ons like football that may open the eyes of the coaches if given the opportunity. The intangibles of what is not seen becomes seen….
If SC can upset UCLA & Arizona, do they move back into contention for an at-large?
30. They will for sure make the tourbament. Even with a .500 record, they would be in the mid twenties
21. it may depend on this last week.
SC’s RPI is 23. as of today they are in, IMHO unfortunately.
they are No. 6 in the RPI among Pac-12 teams. ahead of 4 teams in the standings.
they are no. 10 in the Pac-12. Only WSU nod Cal below. And Cal’s only win this year in the Pac-12 is against USC.
At some point there has to be some common sense.
18. Cindy, it is as confusing to me as it is to you.
2012 there were 31 auto and 33 at-large. But in 2013 there were 32 AQ with the addition of the renamed Big East Conference called the American Athletic Conference, which prefers the name “The American” and not AAC. (More confusing, there’s still a conference called the Big East Conference with Catholic-oriented schools.)
If you go to this site — http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/conference_trends — and look at the bottom, you will see that there are indeed 33 D1 Conferences. But this number includes a strange conference called “Independent.”
Then when you click on Institutions on that same page, you will find only 1 school listed as Independent: NJIT or New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders, which up to 2012 played in the Great West Conference [GWC] — a conference that no longer exists as a women’s volleyball conference. So now NJIT plays as an Independent, which counts as a conference.
The long and short of it: 32 AQ and 32 automatic. Same as last year, as I know of no newly created or newly disbanded conference. And NJIT has a 13-22 w-l record so it can’t even win the automatic bid even as the solo Independent conference member.
Above link didn’t work. Try this:
http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings?sport_code=WVB&division=1
Then click on Trends for the listing of the 33 conferences.
congrats to Taylor and Greeley !
Can’t worry about things out of our control (like the NCAA selection committee.) What we can control are our passing, digging, and serve receive, all of which could be improved.
this was apparently cut or omitted from the hawai’i vs fullerton at fullerton thread which is closed.
so i post here. direct link to said match:
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/2099305/